Community Grants

Do you have an idea for a public humanities project? Does it bring Illinoisans together to explore and share ideas? Is your project collaborative?

Illinois Humanities supports humanities projects that help to strengthen community life. We have recently revamped our grantmaking guidelines in order to better respond to your ideas. We’ve also redone our processes, becoming more user-friendly and agile. Take a look at the new categories of funding below. And don’t hesitate to ask questions or to let us know what you think.

Program Description

We fund projects throughout the state that bring people together for inquiry and conversation – discussing and learning about the digital humanities, targeting and engaging new audiences, making public humanities programming more engaging and interactive, and increasing strategic planning and sustainable collaboration. These changes reflect our evolving commitment to exploring and supporting the public humanities – we’d like your organization to join us in this journey.

One exciting part of this commitment is our goal of hosting or funding conversations in each of our state’s 102 counties in the lead-up to Illinois’ 2018 bicentennial. We need you to help us make this goal a reality by participating in our Illinois Speaks micro-grants.

Over the coming year, we hope to work with our grantee partners to better understand where the public humanities are headed. It’s been said over and over that the old model was the professor at the lectern, speaking to a quiet public, and that the new model engages audiences and takes their expertise seriously. But what does this really look like? What are creative models for this new direction in the public humanities? How can we assess the quality and impact of high-quality and engaging programming? How can high-quality programming help build or strengthen community engagement?

Illinois Humanities cares that public events are as inclusive as possible. Because of this, grant applicants may check a box to request an additional $100 to provide accessibility services (e.g., ASL translation).

Below are our grantmaking guidelines and more information to help guide you. The deadlines for each grant can be found in the section below. Please reach out for advice on the process or on a project you are considering. Simply email mark.hallett@ilhumanities.org or call 312.374.1555 for more information. We are here to help, and look forward to getting to know your work.

Grant Categories

Vision Grants

Vision Grants are ($2,000) grants to Illinois nonprofit organizations to carry out planning projects related to their work in the humanities. These grants are intended for smaller organizations and applicants must have an annual budget of $1 million or less.

We believe that planning plays a critical role in smaller groups’ ability to successfully carry out humanities initiatives. Especially for groups that wish to delve into more interactive public humanities programming or target new audiences, planning grants can help develop a series, explore collaborations, or look into harnessing digital technology or other tools. We believe that better planning leads to stronger programming, and that stronger programmatic initiatives can lead to stronger organizational vitality.

Working with consultants to conduct research, provide training, and help develop evaluation tools is entirely acceptable. Projects can include convening scholars, bringing together or surveying audience members, traveling around the state to research an initiative, and other activities that will help groups conduct planning.

Through this grants area, we hope to learn more about the following questions along with grantees:

What is the role of planning in delivering high-quality humanities programming?

What does this planning actually look like?

Does effective planning help smaller humanities groups increase their sustainability?

Action Grants

Action Grants are project grants (up to $4,000) to nonprofit organizations located in Illinois or doing work impacting Illinois audiences. Action Grants are meant to provide support to groups that want to try out innovative approaches to public humanities programming. Applicants must be nonprofit organizations, and can include churches, libraries, colleges or universities, and others.

Action Grants cover projects or initiatives that explore the digital humanities, apply new techniques in audience engagement, and build new and diverse audiences. Our hope is that these grants will help spark more risk-taking and experimental and/or engaging public humanities work on the part of Illinois nonprofits. Project budgets can cover project expenses as well as engagement activities. Projects must have a humanities angle. Media projects such as oral history, filmmaking, journalism, and other story telling are very much a part of this portfolio.

Through this grants area, we hope to learn more about the following questions along with grantees:

What are models for building creative interactivity and growing audiences?

Can creative programming help to grow audiences?

How can this experimentation bolster organizations’ longterm viability?

Multiplier Grants

Multiplier Grants are our largest grant category (maximum $15,000). They are meant to support collaborative projects in the public humanities.

We believe that collaboration is essential for groups to successfully carry out their missions, can help build up the capacity of organizations to better serve the needs of their audiences.

Examples of Multiplier Grants might include a number of groups coming together in a given city or town to form a working group trying to attract young families, the development of a citywide plan for nurturing the humanities, or a group of libraries or historical societies working collectively to bolster their public engagement in creative ways.

Through this grants area, we hope to learn more about the following questions along with grantees:

What are models for successful partnering to further engagement with the humanities?

What are ways that multiple groups in a given sector can learn and share with one another findings to spark innovation more broadly?

Illinois Speaks micro-grants

Illinois Speaks micro-grants are $250 grants to individuals and organizations to host public discussions about contemporary issues. These grants allow more people to act as trained facilitators or moderators of public discussion across the state of Illinois. The money goes toward:

compensation for moderators

support for the host organization or venue

refreshments

outreach

recording an event

Illinois Humanities cares that public events are as inclusive as possible; Illinois Speaks applicants can check a box to request an additional $100 to provide accessibility services (e.g., American Sign Language translation).

How does Illinois Speaks work?

Anyone over the age of 15 can apply for an Illinois Speaks micro-grant. They simply need to fill out an Illinois Humanities grant proposal form, which asks

who they are

the topic they would like to discuss

their experience hosting or moderating discussion

how they plan to get 10 or more people to attend

who their partner host institution is

how they would use the Illinois Speaks micro-grant

The grants will be paid not to individuals but to the host nonprofit, school, library, church, university or college, or other nonprofit civic institution with which they partner.

Proposals to host Illinois Speaks dialogues should be sent before one of our four 2017 deadlines: January 15, April 15, July 15, and October 15. If a group has already hosted an Illinois Speaks dialogue or is particularly experienced in facilitating such public conversations, it can apply to host a series of four meetings for a grant of $1,000. We will try to respond to applicants within 3 weeks. Please note that your event’s start date should be no earlier than the 15th of the month following the application deadline. For example, if you are applying for the January 15th deadline, than your event must take place on or after February 15th.

What does Illinois Humanities bring to the table?

Illinois Humanities will provide resources for moderators. In year one, the topics we have chosen are: “Water and the Common Good,” “The Future of Public Education,” and “The Aftermath of Ferguson, Mo.” In addition, we will entertain proposals for the topic of your choice. Illinois Humanities, in some cases, will know of speakers who may help bring your topic to life.

Illinois Humanities will provide training in moderating public discussions. Some of these will be in person, some in the form of a webinar. They will be conducted by Illinois Humanities staff.

Illinois Humanities is working with Danielle Allen and her team at the Humanities and Liberal Arts Assessment Lab (HULA) to provide evaluation consulting to help us learn from the Illinois Speaks initiative. HULA will provide an evaluation tool and assistance to groups that choose to take advantage, to help us all better understand creative ways of using texts or other resources in program design, how to attract diverse audiences, and how to engage people in civil discussion.

Illinois Humanities will provide communications back up for your event. We will help get the word out to a broad public in our e-newsletter and via social media. We ask that Illinois Speaks awardees send photos and a description of the event afterwards.

What is your responsibility?

Your obligations are simple:

To go through a training to help hone your moderating skills

To show commitment to a dialogue that allows people of diverging views to speak up and engage in a civil way

To help us document and evaluate your event.

We want to know who attended your event and want you to take and share photos, perhaps a video, and a description of how it unfolded. We’ll use all of this to show what a great job you did and encourage others to apply.

A Note About Students:

We believe that high school students can act as great moderators of public discussion. And if you are a student and want to work with a teacher, or an after-school group that you participate in, we’d like to encourage this. Participating in this program may be a way to take what you are learning outside of the classroom. Your public event can also take place within school too, but we definitely want to hear from you.

Deadlines: January 15th (for event on or after February 15th), April 15th (for event on or after May 15th), July 15th (for event on or after August 15th), and October 15th (for event on or after November 15th)

More Information

Deadlines

The deadlines for Illinois Speaks Micro-Grants are January 15, (event must start on or after February 15th)April 15, (event must start on or after May 15th)July 15, (event must start on or after August 15th), and October 15(event must start on or after November 15th).

In the case of all Grants categories, we make ourselves available to review grant applications or a list of project ideas, before proposals are submitted. We request that you send in drafts, or a menu of ideas, at least a full month before the deadline. Do so by emailing Mark Hallett at mark.hallett@ilhumanities.org.

How to Apply

For Vision, Action, and Multiplier Grants, apply by submitting a Letter of Inquiry by one of the three deadline dates (January 15, May 15, or September 15). We meet shortly after the LOI deadline date and will get back to a select few groups to request a full proposal. If your organization is asked for a full proposal, you will have just 3 weeks to supply one. A single group may apply for two separate Grants categories at one time, but must fill out two separate LOI’s to do so. (Remember that we have a form for submitting LOI’s, here, as well as an applications manual to help guide you through the process, here.)

In the case of Illinois Speaks Micro-Grants, simply submit a proposal for support by one of the six deadlines indicated. We will meet shortly after each of the six deadlines, and in the case your proposal is approved we will ask you for a signed grant agreement. Shortly thereafter, we will arrange an in-person or digital webinar in how to moderate public dialogues. Remember that a public dialogue does not have to be a townhall with 350 people – it might be 10 people in a church basement. If you have questions about the process, don’t hesitate to ask. Remember that we’ve created a form for you to apply for an Illinois Speaks Micro-grant, here.)

We ask all Grant recipients to document their initiatives or events by shooting photos, recording audio, or video, and writing up a brief blog post on how the project went. We want to share with others the great work that grantees are carrying out.

Evaluation

Evaluation is important to us, and we are eager to see how grant applicants define success and plan to measure progress toward it. We ask grant applicants to describe in precise terms the desired outcome of a project, how they will know if it was successful, and how it will serve their organization. Illinois Humanities is working with humanities scholar Danielle Allen at Harvard’s Humanities and Liberal Arts Assessment Lab on evaluation and assessment with grantees. This opportunity means that grantees that are interested will be eligible for consulting on their evaluation work.

Frequently Asked Questions

Why does Illinois Humanities have a grantmaking program?

Illinois Humanities has been making grants since its inception in 1974. In the past 30 years, Illinois Humanities has made nearly 2,000 grants for a total of $10.5 million. We are proud to have helped support dozens of documentary films, conferences, exhibits, training programs, oral history projects, and scores of other activities. We are firm believers in the many organizations and individuals throughout the state of Illinois that value the humanities, culture, and dialogue as community-building activities, and wish to help them to fulfill their missions, carry out high-quality programming, and grow their organizations. We are indebted to the National Endowment for the Humanities and the Illinois General Assembly for the support that allows this grantmaking program to exist.

What is your definition of the humanities?

The humanities are the examination of what it means to be human through the interpretation and discussion of all forms of thought, interest and expression.

We value traditional humanities disciplines, such as art history, literature, history, and philosophy. However, our emphasis on the public humanities means that we look at the humanities as more than an academic discipline. For us, the public humanities are a mode of inquiry and conversation that aims to engage, support, or challenge the ideals, beliefs, tensions, and prejudices of the communities in which we live. We believe that important thought can happen outside of the academy – in neighborhood institutions, schools, churches, and at kitchen tables across the country.

We are especially interested in instances of the public humanities that promote civic engagement – in raising critical issues facing everyday people and conducted with the hope of increasing their thirst for staying engaged. Take a look at our focus areas, for instance – Arts, Business, Media & Journalism, and Public Policy – where the disciplines at the heart of programming may or may not fall under the traditional humanities categories. Rather than being defined by rigid disciplinary boundaries, it is the humanistic lens, which emphasizes curiosity, questioning, and dialogue, that matters.

Does your organization have a working definition of the public humanities? Share it with us – we’re eager to explore how others are addressing this complex question.

With the changes in your grantmaking guidelines, are there things you used to fund that you are no longer funding?

More than anything, we have added several categories. We’ve kept the planning grants (now called Vision) and the Project grants (now called Action) and added the two new categories of Multiplier Grants (our biggest grant category, for collaborations) and Illinois Speaks Micro-Grants (to help spark public dialogue at the community level throughout the state).

The two categories we have dropped are General Operating grants and Media Projects. We believe our budget is too small to make much of a difference from the standpoint of general operating support – though we may revisit this later. Media projects continue to be a primary focus of our work and our grantmaking program. Documentary film, storytelling, oral history, journalism, and other forms of media are the lifeblood of much humanities work. We’ve taken away ‘media’ as a category, but hope to continue to see great media initiatives in other categories. We just aren’t treating them with their own category at this time.

How has the process changed?

Plenty has changed. We’ve gone digital. We’ve reduced the number of deadlines from four to three. We’re paying out all grant awards in a single payment. Also, we’re requesting Letters of Inquiry (LOI’s) first, and then with a select group of applicants moving on to a Full Proposal. It is worth noting that if we ask for a Full Proposal, the turnaround time will be very short.

Can an organization have more than one active grant with Illinois Humanities at a time?

In general, Illinois Humanities will have one open grant with any single entity at a given time. There are two exceptions to this rule: If your organization acts as fiscal agent for another, you can still have a project grant that is funded by Illinois Humanities. The other exception is that a single group can have a Vision, Action, or Multiplier Grant but also receive support to host Illinois Speaks conversations.

Who can apply?

Nonprofit organizations can apply for Illinois Humanities grants. This includes 501c3 organizations and nonprofits under state law, as well as libraries, schools, faith-based organizations and universities. We do not accept grant applications from individuals or for-profit companies. If you are unsure about whether you can apply, reach out to us.

Robust Indigenes – American Indian Center (Action; $4,000☨) Funding to support an oral history project, storytelling events and retrospective exhibit

“What is America For?” – The Point magazine (Action; $4,000☨) Funding to support a series of essays and public programs examining the American democratic process in the context of presidential elections

People Saving Places – Landmarks Illinois (Multiplier; $10,000) Funding to support a partnership between LI, documentary film makers and the new app Vamonde to highlight how local groups are working to preserve places

January 2016

Enhancing social media marketing – Hektoen Institute Nurses and Humanities Group ($2,000) Funding to support social media outreach for an initiative using the humanities to foster healing.

RiverStages Education Series – River Action ($5,000) Funding to integrate more participatory arts and humanities content into an established education series.

Passing The Bronze Torch – Community TV Network ($5,000) Funding to support a youth documentary and walking tour exploring 100 years of black migration to the Bronzeville neighborhood.

We Want Harold! – Media Process Educational Films ($5,000) Funding for a documentary examining the election, political career and legacy of Harold Washington.

Enhancing the museum visitor’s experience – Effingham County Museum ($3,171) Funding for production of videos on artifacts in the permanent collection to enhance the visitor experience.

General Support – Illinois State Historical Society ($5,000) Funding to create lesson plans around the Illinois bicentennial, develop an Illinois history page on the society’s website, producing a “This Day In History” program for media outlets and collaborating with the Illinois History Fair.

The Orange Story: A Cinematic Digital History Project – Full Spectrum Features ($5,000) Funding for a documentary and digital history project telling the history and legacy of Japanese American incarceration during World War II.

Real Chi Youth Community Based Reporting – Free Spirit Media ($5,000) Funding for Free Spirit Media’s advanced civic journalism program on Chicago’s South and West sides.

Illinois Speaks Awards

Leading up to Illinois’ bicentennial in 2018, we’re excited to announce our “Illinois Bicentennial Challenge.” We’re hoping to help host or fund Illinois Speaks conversations in all 102 counties of the state. See which counties have received awards so far.

Program Coordinator

Illinois Humanities respects the privacy of its audiences and will at no time sell or distribute personal information to any party not directly affiliated with Illinois Humanities and its programs.

Illinois Humanities is supported in part by the National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH) and the Illinois General Assembly [through the Illinois Arts Council Agency], as well as by contributions from individuals, foundations and corporations.

Any views, findings, conclusions, or recommendations expressed by speakers, program participants, or audiences do not necessarily reflect those of the NEH, Illinois Humanities, our partnering organizations or our funders.